Admirals of the British Navy

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ADMIRALS OF THE BRITISH NAVY

Portraits in Colours by

FRANCIS DODD

With Introduction and Biographical Notes

Published from the Offices of "Country Life," Ltd., 20, Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London; and George Newnes, Ltd., 8-11, Southampton Street, Strand, London, W.C. 2. MCMXVII

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I.--JELLICOE, ADMIRAL SIR JOHN R., G.C.B., O.M., G.C.V.O.

II.--BURNEY, ADMIRAL SIR CECIL, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., D.S.O.

III.--MADDEN, ADMIRAL SIR C. E., K.C.B., K.C.M.G., C.V.O.

IV.--PHILLIMORE, REAR-ADMIRAL R. F., C.B., M.V.O.

V.--BACON, VICE-ADMIRAL SIR R. H. S., K.C.B., K.C.V.O., D.S.O.

VI.--DE ROBECK, VICE-ADMIRAL SIR J. M., K.C.B.

VII.--NAPIER, VICE-ADMIRAL T. D. W., C.B., M.V.O.

VIII.--BROCK, REAR-ADMIRAL SIR OSMOND de B., K.C.V.O., C.B., C.M.G.

IX.--HALSEY, REAR-ADMIRAL LIONEL, C.B., C.M.G.

X.--PAKENHAM, VICE-ADMIRAL SIR W. C., K.C.B., K.C.V.O.

XI.--PAINE, COMMODORE GODFREY M., C.B., M.V.O.

XII.--TYRWHITT, COMMODORE SIR R. Y., K.C.B., D.S.O.

INTRODUCTION

If the English are singularly incurious about their Navy, that attitude must not be thought to imply neglect. On the contrary, it is a blend of admiration, respect, and, above all, confidence, induced very largely by the Navy itself. For so long has the Navy minded its own silent business that we--otherwise so inquisitive a people--have come to look upon it as beyond examination and (normally too eager to cut open the drum and explore its resources) trustfully to leave it to its own devices, conscious that those devices are wholly in our own interests. As Matthew Arnold said in his sonnet to Shakespeare:

Others abide our question, thou art free--

so do we address the Navy. For, although it baffles curiosity and ends by eliminating it, it is only to substitute faith. We do not take for granted all the things that we cannot understand: sometimes, indeed, we deny them; but we are satisfied to take for granted the Navy. We know that it is there. Where "there" is we may have no notion; by "there" we mean probably everywhere. The Navy is not only there, the Navy is everywhere, and therefore all's well. That is our simple creed.

A further cause for this quiet and unusual acceptivity is to be found in the medium in which the Navy works--the sea itself. The sea has ever been a barrier to investigation, and the Navy and the sea are one. Public opinion is land-made, and landsmen have neither time nor inclination to cope with the riddles of the ocean, which to most of us is vague and inimical, the home of risks and discomforts which it is wiser to avoid. Well content to consider her, from a safe distance, as a Sphinx, we are very happy that to others has fallen the perilous lot of patrolling her and very full of gratitude for their courage and success.

If the Army, on the contrary, is so much under the microscope, it is largely because it has few or no mysteries. We know the rules. Armies are made up of men like ourselves (only better). They advance as we do, by putting one foot before another, on the solid earth. Their movements are followable, even if we cannot always understand them; daily bulletins are printed in the public Press. But the Navy keeps its secrets. Not only have we no notion where it is, but we should be little the wiser as to its inner purposes if, scanning the illimitable and capricious waves, it should be our fortune to descry here and there a flotilla of its dark grey hulls. Even in harbour most men pointing out a cruiser to their children say "That's a dreadnought"--a state of confusion bred and fostered by the strange, dark, dangerous element in which the Navy has its being.